A method and system for searching contact lists quickly, that provides searching of a contact list by user defined group names, attributes, and/or system defined metadata regarding contacts, groups and/or attributes. A user of a communication system is allowed to organize their contacts in their contact list within a number of contact groups and to associate attributes with contact groups and/or individual contacts. The visual display of contacts within the user's contact list user interface display may be configured to visually organize contacts into the groups they belong to, and/or to display the attributes associated with groups and/or contacts within the top level contact list display. Group and/or contact attributes may alternatively be accessed by selecting (e.g. clicking on) a group or contact. A quick search feature is provided that allows the contact list to be searched based on group name, attribute, and/or contact name, as well as based on group, contact and/or attribute metadata.